


You Look Like Rain

by Rehizle_28



Category: Terminator (Movies), Terminator - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Half Character Study, half fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21535144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehizle_28/pseuds/Rehizle_28
Summary: “You saved me, and you raised me out of despair. And you taught me to hope. Like you saved and taught the others.”There are moments, when she thinks Dani isn’t watching, where Grace looks at her like she’s the rain after a drought.
Relationships: Grace/Dani Ramos
Comments: 12
Kudos: 188





	You Look Like Rain

**Author's Note:**

> So I absolutely adored this movie, and the characters of Grace and Dani so much that apparently it was enough to pull me out of my writing clump that's been going on almost a year! I've attempted to stay cannon adjacent up to a point but had to try and fix that god awful line they put in to try and sell Dani/Grace as a familial relationship!
> 
> Edit: The title come from the Luke Bryan song, You Look Like Rain

There are moments, when she thinks Dani isn’t watching where Grace looks at her like she’s the rain after a drought, as if she hung the stars in the sky.

She had first seen it in the truck, trapped in the middle seat. Diego pressed tight to her right hand side, Grace to her left. Her brother’s panicked gasps sounding loud in her ear, the terror of watching Grace battle that _thing_ almost overwhelming her.

“Why us?!”

Of the hundreds of questions poised on the tip of her tongue, those two words are the only ones she can force past her lips, breath panting from the exertion of the chase.

“You, Dani.” Grace's voice is urgent. “ _You’re_ my mission.”

Grace thinks she’s looking at Diego, his affronted squeak drawing her attention. But out the corner of her eye Dani sees, sees the look this stranger shoots her as she speaks. Ten minutes ago she didn’t even know this person (if she really was a human), but the look in Grace’s eyes is as if she’s seeing Dani for the first time in forever.

She may not believe in time travel just yet, but what she does know is that strangers don’t look like that at each other.

There’s not much time to think about it, because the yellow truck is gaining on them again.

* * *

The second time they’re in the bed of a different truck, heading to see her uncle.

Her exhaustion has gotten the better of her, body forcing her to succumb to sleep. She’d started to nod off sitting upright, assuring Grace several times that she was fine. Even she hadn’t been able to keep up that pretence, and before long she found herself stretched out on the floor of the bed of the truck, head cushioned by Grace's lap. Her presence is firm but soft, lulling Dani into sleep.

She doesn’t know how long she’s out for but it can’t be more than an hour. She wakes softly, eyes shut and breathing even. She can hear Grace talking, the words soft and indiscernible.

There’s a hand on her shoulder, long fingers playing aimlessly with the ends of her hair and even though she’s only known Grace for less than a day, the motion is immediately soothing, familiar, makes her feel safe.

Shifting minutely, not wanting to alert Grace to her conscious state, she cracks her eyes open a fraction. Grace’s face swims into blurry view above her, eyes darting between Dani and Sarah who is leaning against the cab of the truck.

The tender expression on Grace’s face takes Dani completely by surprise, she hadn’t expected such soft emotion to be present in her augmented saviour, the closest word she can supply to describe it is, bizarrely, devotion. Much like in the truck Dani realises this is a look Grace doesn’t expect her to see, a crack in the armour that Grace has chosen to physically and mentally wrap herself in.

Not wanting to intrude further of something that is clearly very personal to her protector Dani sighs dramatically, feigning wakefulness. When she opens her eyes fully, the look has vanished and Grace’s expression is neutral once more.

Sarah’s expression not so much.

* * *

She’s heard the horror stories, of course she has. But even those hadn’t prepared her for the feeling of the cage door closing behind her, the immediate and almost crushing weight of being trapped.

Grace is nowhere to be seen, taken away by medics and guards after the drone explosion, Sarah, in a different cage, for the first time since this all began she’s alone.

She has no idea if Grace is even alive.

The irony that she had given them up so she wouldn’t have to watch Grace die, only to have her ripped away from her by the drone crash is not lost on her.

She sees the panic that wells up inside her reflected in the faces of those around her, sees those who are looking for an escape, and those who have resigned themselves to their fate.

Guards patrol the edges of the cages, sneering at those inside, occasionally smacking the mesh grating that contains them, laughing when too slow fingers get caught in the way.

The lack of humanity in their eyes, in their words, their actions, treating everyone here like they’re not human, just because of the colour of their skin, chills Dani to her very bones.

The future may all go to hell in the apocalypse, but from where she’s standing, they’re halfway there in the present.

All she can do is wait, she has no idea of their next move. Grace and Sarah had made all the plans, she just allowed herself to be dragged from place to place, a pawn in this sick, twisted game. Not for the first time she curses her lack of knowledge, her utter dependence on other people to save her. 

She tries to explain to the woman is processing, tries to explain the danger they were all in just by Dani being in here.

It sounds absurd coming out of her mouth, and she knows that nothing she says will convince anyone in here. The only thing they will believe is their eyes, and by that point it’s too late. They’re all dead.

The prickling of dread that creeps up her spine is the first sign that something is wrong, well, more wrong than it could possibly already be.

Everywhere the machine goes, death isn’t far behind.

The doors to the cage further down flies open, people scrambling to get out. Dani doesn’t know who’s opening them, the Terminator? Sarah?

 _Grace_.

The shaggy mop of blonde hair is the first thing she spots, Grace’s lanky figure pelting the length of the cage, eyes wide and mad as she scans the people pressed against the mesh, screaming for release.

Her feet move without direct instruction from her brain, gravitating towards Grace like a moth to a flame. Her attempts to scream Grace’s name lost in all the noise, instead pushing her way to the front of the crowd of people gathered near the cage door.

When they finally meet hers Grace’s eyes are wide and wild, fixed with an urgency that Dani hasn’t seen before. She sees the relief that floods the blue irises, pure unfettered emotion that overwhelms the other woman, _that_ look, the one Dani is starting to realise is solely for her.

Dani acts instinctively, throwing herself forward, through the door that Grace has just wrenched open. Knowing, without a shadow of a doubt that her arms will be there to catch her, hands clasping around Grace’s jaw, cupping her face and taking solace in the solid feeling of her hot sweaty skin under her fingertips.

She’s so relieved she could cry.

They were both alive.

For now.

* * *

It’s impossible to process the events that have happened in less then 48 hours.

The Rev-9 attacking the factory, Grace exploding into her life with the discharge of a shotgun, the chase, Diego disappearing into a ball of flame, Sarah saving them, the train ride, crossing the border, the detention centre. It’s all chaos, screaming, blood, terror, and in the centre of it all, a singular voice, urging her forward, keeping her upright.

Flashes of it rattle around her brain, bouncing off the sides like the world’s craziest game of pinball.

Even when she squeezes her eyes shut they refuse to solidify, refuse to meld together in a coherent structure so she can at least start to try and piece together how so much had gone wrong in so little time, how her entire life has spun so completely off its axis.

Her papi has always commented on her sharp mind, on her ability to adapt to any situation, her intelligence, her tenacity, he never passes up an opportunity to brag about his little Dani, the smart one, the problem solver.

Had.

Diego, her father, that’s what they are now, reduced to had and have been, both extinguished from her life in the blink of an eye.

There’s no time in the present to grieve for the past. Not when every second could be the last, in all the chaos all she can do is put one foot in from of the other. Keep running, keep fighting, keep _living_.

At least that’s what she tells herself. Knowing that if she allows herself to stop, to slow, she’ll slip into the grief that’s been held at arms length, arms that are beginning to tire, to buckle.

There’s some breathing room at the cabin, Sarah thinks they may have a day, maybe a day and a half. 

Grace snorts at that, muttering something under her breath that Dani barely hears, she thinks she says it’s more like hours. At Sarah’s wilting glare Grace only offers a hard stare in return, eyes impossibly blue and unblinking.

Sometimes Dani is reminded so very starkly that her protector is not entirely human. The glint of machine she's glimpsed before under torn skin is present in her expression, the cut of her jaw, teeth clenching so tightly together. In the squaring of her shoulders, hands planted on her hips, biceps taught and scars shinning like badges of honour, a show of defiance to the world of the lengths this woman will go to ensure _her_ survival.

The tension between the hybrid, tormented by a nightmare future, and the Terminator killer, trapped in the demons of her past is somehow even more unnerving than then dead gaze of the Rev-9.

At a single touch from Dani’s hand all the tension melts from Grace’s figure, muscles relax, although never completely, she can feel the twitch, the readiness to jump into action the second she senses danger. Her gaze, fixed so intently on Sarah’s, flicker down, blue eyes slowly losing their steel, replaced with a warmth that seems so at odds with the harsh reality they find themselves in.

For the first time since she walked out of her manager’s office, what seems like both a lifetime, and yet mere minutes ago, Dani has time. Time to sit down, time to stretch out aching muscles and sooth bruised and cut skin, time to try and sort through the swirling torrent that engulfs her mind, her temples ache from the effort of keeping it all boxed away, of restraining the flood.

She’s finally been able to have a shower, Carl showing her to a room that looks like it’s used primarily by Alicia. It doesn’t fix anything, but she can’t help but feel a little better once she’s washed off some of the remnants of all that’s happened.

She’s always prided herself on being logical, rational. But it’s hard to be either of those when a shape shifting, time travelling machine from the future is hell bent on severing her head from her neck. It’s hard to apply logic to the unlikely foursome she has found herself a part of.

She, apparently the saviour of the future. Sarah, the woman who has been in her shoes, pursued to the ends of the earth because of the child that would someday grow in her womb, a woman who has seen and experienced more pain and loss than anyone should. Grace, a human mixed with machine, stronger, faster, steadfast, who could fix Dani with a stare so intense, a stare that held the secrets of the future, a future that Dani was sensing more and more that entwines their fates in ways she can’t begin to understand. And then there was Carl, who hung drapes, and was apparently very funny.

Oh, and also a Terminator, sent from the future to murder Sarah’s son, a mission he completed, a mission that is the reason for the darkness she sees reflected back in every look Sarah shoots him.

Together, the four of them are supposed to destroy a machine that never eats, never sleeps, and never stops moving. Never deviates from it’s primary objective, hunting her down. Dani has never been much of an optimist, Diego had always been enough of one for the both of them, but even by her standards their situation is looking more and more desperate and she realises that the odds of winning this fight are slim indeed.

The hopelessness of their predicament, compounded by the raw loss of her entire family, constricts around her chest like a snake, squeezing the air from her lungs, breath catching in her throat until she’s worried she’s going to pass out. The world feels so horribly small, and yet impossibly large at the same time. There’s nowhere to run, and yet endless possibilities. Her options however remain stark and clear.

Run. Or fight.

Die now. Or die later.

Bracing her hands on her knees she takes several large breaths, focusing on counting each on in and out for eight seconds, focusing on the sound of the air returning to her lungs, confirmation that she’s not dead yet.

Unlike her father and Diego.

The thought wrenches a sob from her chest that catches her by surprise, louder than she intended.

A moment later the now familiar prickling tickles the back of her neck

She’s not alone. 

Turning her head to the side reveals Grace, hovering in the doorway. Of course she heard Dani’s sob, the woman had been able to pick out the noise of a drone from over a mile away in the desert in the middle of the night for God’s sake.

Grace doesn’t speak, doesn’t move. Dani realises she’s waiting for an invitation, to be invited forward, into Dani’s space. 

It’s funny she thinks, that since they met this is the first time Grace has held back, every move she has made up until now has been about keeping Dani out of harms way, and often that has meant tossing her around like a ragdoll. Dani is certain more of her cuts and bruises are from Grace’s ‘protection’.

Not that she’s ungrateful, she owes her life to the soldier.

In her periphery she can see the concern etched on Grace’s face, jaw clenching and unclenching in a way that Dani has noticed she does when she’s unsure. However they know each other in the future, and Dani is now certain that they do, it’s clear that Grace is heavily invested in not only Dani’s physical wellbeing, but her mental one as well.

“I’m ok.” The answer to the unmasked question doesn’t do much to alleviate Grace’s concern, the slight wobble in her voice probably doesn’t help. Grace takes a step forward, one arm raising slightly before falling back down to her side.

In battle Grace is decisive, her augments helping her to make split second decisions that Dani knows have saved her life on more than a few occasions. Her movements are always fluid, precise, each one rolling into the next without any room for hesitation. It’s mesmerising to watch, albeit completely terrifying.

It seems like dealing with emotional trouble comes with a bit more difficulty, her movements are awkward, stilted, almost as if she doesn’t know what to do with her limbs,. Dani is hit by the image of a baby deer learning to walk and has to suppress a snort.

Looking up Dani meets Grace’s gaze head on.

It’s the clear from the slight widening of Grace’s eyes that she wasn’t expecting the motion.

In the moment of surprise she is unable to mould her expression into a more neutral one and Dani is given a head on view of a look she has previously only seen in passing, a proper lingering look. The raw emotion of it squeezes the air from her lungs for the second time in as many minutes. It’s these moments that show Dani the true depth of Grace’s devotion, devotion that goes far beyond the augments of her body, far beyond the loyalty of a solider to their mission.

Grace _sees_ her.

Grace looks at her like she’s the rain, washing away a long dusty drought. Like she’s the first taste of food after an eternity of starving.

The sudden rush of tender emotion that floods Dani is completely at odds with the sorrow, fear, and uncertainty that seem to engulf her every waking moment.

Dani cannot put a name to it, doesn’t want to, all she knows is that for the first time since her world fell apart she feels a warmth, feels like there is something worth holding on to.

Stepping forward she wraps her arms around Grace’s middle, noting that Grace doesn’t tense like she does when anyone else touches her, relaxing immediately into Dani’s embrace like they’ve done this hundreds of times before.

Dani knows she needs to ask Grace what they are in the future, but in that moment, warm and safe encircled in Grace’s arms, she can’t bring herself to look forward. It’s time to live in the present, at least for a little while.

* * *

“My plan is to hide her in the bottom of a mineshaft if I have to. At least until...”

Grace is half on her feet, anger blazing in her eyes at the mere suggestion of Sarah’s kill box.

“Stop it!” it takes a second for Dani to register that the next voice that’s drowned out Grace’s is her own. “I’m not hiding at the bottom of a mineshaft.” Rising to her feet she takes a confident step forward, trying not to look directly at the wide eyed stare Grace has her pinned down with, a stare that seems to convey a thousand words, one she’ll get lost in if she doesn’t hold her nerve.

“I am not going to live the rest of my life in fear.” She continues, shooting Sarah a look that attempts to be as withering as she can make it, and for the first time she believes herself. She’s had enough of running, enough of looking over her shoulder, enough of letting everything else in this nightmare reality decide her fate for her. If the end of the world is coming, if the end of her life is coming, then dammit it’s going to be on her terms.

Even before all of this, before the future crashed into her life, she constantly felt overpowered. No autonomy over her life, her decisions, her body, her future. People she had never met, who didn’t see anything but the country she came from, the accent she spoke with and the colour of her skin, deciding that because of those she had no worth, that she and all like her were expendable.

“Even if your plan means that might not be long! I want to stand and fight. So we choose our weapons, and our ground. We’re going to set up a...”

“Kill box.” Sarah supplies at her vague hand gesture.

“Kill box. And then we are going to use me as bait. And then we kill that thing. Ok?”

The last word is aimed squarely at Grace, who meets Dani’s eyes reluctantly. She expects to see resistance, expects Grace to protest, like she has at just about everything else Dani has said since they met. What she doesn’t expect to see is admiration, and dare she say it, pride? The feeling that Grace is looking up to her (in both a figurative and literal sense), rather than the other way round, forces Dani to stand up a little straighter, that warm feeling swirling once again in her lower stomach.

Carl adjusts his huge bulk in the tiny chair, something that could be described as a thoughtful expression passing over his face. “This plan has a high probability of success.”

Dani could kiss him she’s so grateful.

The slump of Grace’s shoulders show even she can’t argue against Carl’s calculations.

“Ok.”

* * *

The one thing Sarah and Grace seem to agree on is that Dani needs to know how to defend herself.

That’s how they find themselves in Carl’s bunker, surrounded by enough guns and ammunitions to kit out a small army.

She doesn’t fail to see the spark that lights both Sarah and Grace’s eyes at the arsenal, and for at least the hundredth time she curses the past and the future that have turned both of these wonderful women into battle hardened soldiers. Creatures of war.

Carl offers to show them his target range, hefting two large handfuls of weapons, Sarah reluctantly following him with the ammo. Dani finds herself muttering a reminder _not_ to shoot him, one she’s not sure Sarah will listen to.

Dani is not far behind them when she realises that Grace isn’t following.

She finds her round the side of the house, crouched against the wall, head bowed and forearms braced against her thighs.

Dani’s eyes are drawn instantly to the white lines that cross Grace’s biceps and shoulders, her sharp collarbones and up to her neck, disappearing into her hair, she wonders how much it hurt, before realising that the answer to that one is obvious. There’s no telling what kind of pain this woman went through to make her the weapon she is, all Dani can wonder is why? Why she felt she had to put herself through that?

At first she thinks Grace is crashing and panic rises in her chest, they don’t have many drugs left, and Dani has no idea what they’ll do if they run out.

But then she notices that Grace’s breathing is even, her eyes closed, if anything she seems in deep thought.

“Grace.” She knows that the augment will have heard her coming, but announces herself anyway. Bobbing down she reaches out a tentative hand, fingers shakily coming into contact with the scars on Grace’s right forearm.

Grace starts at the contact, head shooting up in the display of superhuman speed that used to make Dani jump.

The second Dani’s eyes lock with Grace’s she’s frozen in place, lost in the swirling blue of her irises. Grace has never looked at her like this before, so openly, it’s like some of the walls have come crashing down, leaving part of Grace exposed. It’s as if Grace is seeing her properly for the first time, as if a fog has been lifted, leaving behind something brighter and clearer in it’s place.

It’s beautiful. Grace, is beautiful.

“Are you ok?” Dani finds the question gets stuck in her throat, barely forcing it past her lips.

Grace pauses for long moment before giving a slow nod.

“Yes, sorry, I just needed a moment to clear my head. It gets a little busy in there sometimes.” A dry chuckle accompanies her words, completely devoid of humour.

“Would it help to talk about it?”

Grace cocks her head, eyebrow arching slightly. “Trust me, I’d have no idea where to start.” She sighs heavily, head falling back to brace against the wall. Her left hand moves to cover Dani’s, thumb stroking across the back of hers in soft strokes. “It’s difficult, balancing the present and the future, there’s only so much I can say, so much I can do.” Sighing again Grace closes her eyes, the breeze ruffling her fringe, messing up her hair even more than it already is.

Dani wants to reach out and brush the errant strands to one side, but she doesn’t want to break Grace out of her concentration, not when she seems to be opening up for the first time since they met each other.

“There are so many things I want to do, I want to run screaming at them, tell them to stop, tell them to...” she sighs again, the frustration evident in the motion. “...to leave the can of fucking peaches.”

Dani’s legs are starting to cramp, but there’s no way in hell she’s moving now. Since the conversation on the train Grace hasn’t mentioned her family again, not mentioned the years she spent fighting through the apocalypse.

“Why don’t you?”

“For so many reasons,” Grace shakes her head, “it’s dangerous, telling people too much about the future. You have to be careful about what you change, my commander...” she trails off, eyes glazing over, lost in a memory. The look on her face is so intimate and vaguely familiar in a way she cant quite place , that Dani feels she should look away, unwelcome in this moment, whoever this commander is Grace clearly feels a deep connection to them. The twinge of jealousy that accompanies that thought is surprising, there’s no time to examine it as Grace is speaking again. “...if I could go to my family, tell them to run, tell them to hide I would. But they’d never believe me. No one would.”

Dani nods, remembering the guard at the detention centre, who’d scoffed at Dani’s every word.

In an attempt to offer some comfort she squeezes Grace’s hand that’s been resting atop her own. From the way Grace looks down in surprise it’s clear she had either forgotten her hand was there, or unware that she had put it there in the first place.

“I wish there was some way I could help.”

“You can survive.” Grace locks gazes with her again. “I meant what I said Dani, none of this, _none_ of it is worth a damn if you don’t survive. If you had any idea how...” Grace exhales sharply, cutting herself off. “Just trust me when I tell you that right now, you are the most important person in the world, and I will do anything to protect you.”

The warmth blossoms once more in her chest, more powerful this time, becoming clearer to her with each passing second. She knows what it is, knows now how to describe the way she feels when Grace looks at her like that. But she can’t say it, can’t admit it. Not when everything else is on the verge of being snatched away from her, she can’t risk losing this by saying it out loud.

But, for the first time, Dani believes her words.

* * *

“I’ve seen that look too many times before.” The way Grace shakes her head, frustration and affection dancing across her expression, is the final straw for Dani. She’s tired of being kept in the dark, tired of not knowing a single thing about her own future, a future she is apparently destined to save.

“You know me, in the future?” it’s more of a statement than a question at this point. Dani has had her suspicions ever since they met that she and Grace are not just passing each other by. They’re connected, past, present and future.

Grace scoffs, defeat present in her expression and stance. It seems that the moment she’s been dreading has finally come, she’s too tired to continue the pretence. “Yeah. I know you. It was _you_ who found me in the ruins after Judgement Day. You saved me.”

In the back of her mind Dani has always known, her subconscious figuring it out even if she didn’t want to listen. The bond between them has always been there, even if Dani had tried to fight it.

“You saved me, and you raised me out of despair. And you taught me to hope, like you saved and taught all the others.” Grace’s voice grows stronger as she speaks, the exhaustion falling away. “You turned scavengers into militias and militias into an army. We rose up out of the ashes, and we took our world back.” Grace slides down, settling on her knees in front of her, Dani’s heart beating faster in her chest, partly from the movement, partly from the adoration she can see shinning in Grace’s eyes, the devotion to her Commander, who Dani is finally realising is her. “You taught us that there is no fate but what we make for ourselves.” The words are spoken so slowly, as if Grace has all the time in the world to convince her, and not mere hours or minutes.

Dani has to look away, the light in Grace’s eyes is too strong, for the first time seeing all of the augment’s emotions laid bare is like looking at the sun, she can feel herself burning.

“Dani,” Grace’s voice is soft, softer than she’s heard it before, “you are not the mother of some _man_ who saves the future. _You_ are the future. You are the woman I...” words seem to fail her and Dani’s heart spikes in hope at what Grace _might_ have said. “...That’s why Legion wants you dead.”

Dani barely hears Sarah’s muttered awed admission behind her, all of her attention is on Grace. Mind whirring back over every word, every touch, every look. The familiarity of the Grace’s touch, the way she makes Dani feel safe without ever having to say a word, how Dani knew instinctively that she could trust her, that she could put her life in her hands. Grace who seems to be able to predict Dani’s moods and actions before she’s even made them.

Grace who sometimes looks at her like she hung the stars in the sky, like she’s a flame burning brighter and hotter, like she’s the rain after a drought.

Grace who _maybe_ just maybe, feels for her a fraction of the emotions that seem to have crept up on Dani in the past two days. Emotions that seem to make no sense at all, but also feel like the most inevitable thing in the world.

Dani swallows hard, trying to find some words, any words that can do justice to the revelations that are currently exploding inside her head.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this before. But you told me that the Dani I’d meet in past couldn’t handle it.” Grace’s tone is almost pleading and Dani realises she’s mistaken her silence for anger. “But you’re not that Dani anymore. You’re...”

Grace’s words trail off when Dani leans forward suddenly, hands cupping Grace’s jaw and foreheads pressed together. She can feel Grace’s stuttered breath washing over her face, feels the pounding of the soldier’s pulse under her fingers where they’ve landed on her neck.

Hyper aware that both Sarah and Carl are watching them, Dani pushes down the impulse to move her face forward the few scant centimetres it would take to bridge the gap between her and Grace’s lips.

“Thank you.” The words are soft, only for Grace, and she feels rather than sees the relief that washes through Grace’s body like a river bursting it’s dam. Strong hands grasp her arms, tugging her closer urgently, as if this moment could fade at any second.

Dani knows that the future is still out there, that the worst is yet to come. But in this moment, when the present finally seems to be making sense, she’s finally found her place.

It’s shattered of course by the arrival of the Rev-9.

And then everything goes to hell.

* * *

The turbines burn, Carl lies unmoving by the edge of the crater left by the explosion. Sarah, holding her shoulder shuffles towards her, eyes uncharacteristically sombre.

The smell of burning metal fills her nose, ash stings her eyes, soot clogs her throat with each inhale, making breathing difficult. She’s struggling to find a piece of her body that doesn’t hurt and she’s fairly certain that one of her ribs is broken.

But all of that pales into insignificance as Grace’s words register.

_This is what you sent me to do._

She, Dani, The Commander. Had sent Grace back here to die. That was her future.

She pleads, she begs, she bargains. Nothing is worth losing Grace.

Each excuse is met with the same sad expression, Grace’s eyes are wide and alive with pain, the effort of breathing hurting.

“You saved me. Let me save you.”

Dani wants to scream at her, pound her chest and tell her that Grace has ben saving her the second the came back from the future, that’s she’s saved her a hundred times over. She wants to force Grace to live, because they’ve only just found each other, and she doesn’t know how she can survive if Grace isn’t there.

There’s no future worth Grace dying.

Nothing she says makes a difference, Grace’s expression doesn’t change, her hands don’t loosen their grip on the shard of metal she’s pressing into Dani’s hand, the shard of metal she wants Dani to plunge into her flesh, to end her life.

“Dani...” Grace’s breathing is laboured as she attempts to lever herself up on her elbows. Dani presses forward, trying to force her back down on her back but Grace holds her ground. “Dani, you have to listen to me. This is the only way, we both knew I wasn’t coming back. I made my peace with this a long time ago, this was always the way it was meant to be.” A bloody hand rests on her cheek and Dani leans into the touch. “ _I_ wouldn’t have it any other way, because I got to be here with you. Before the whole word goes to shit, I got to see who you were before this world took everything from you, the part I could never see in the future, and I will be eternally thankful for that. You saved me, and now I can do the same for you. I can help you save the world.”

“Not without you.” Dani sobs, tears falling unhindered from her eyes.

Grace smiles, weak and strained, her own tears lying unshod in her eyes. “You’re the most important person in the world Dani, my world and everyone else’s, this world is going to need you far more than it needs me.”

“I need you.” She insists, “I’ve always needed you. I...” the words, that she shouldn’t want to say after only three days catch on the edge of her tongue.

“I love you.”

It takes a second for her to process that it’s Grace who spoke, not her and before she can respond Grace’s lips are pressing against hers.

It’s like tasting rain on her mouth after a long summer’s drought, it’s a fire lighting up the night sky chasing away the cold of the dark, it’s the joy she only used to find when Diego sang, or her father cooked.

It’s urgent, it’s passionate, it’s a little rough. It’s so Grace.

It’s everything.

She kisses Grace back like she’s the air she breathes, kisses her like the world is ending in that second.

Because for her it is.

“Do it.” The two words are murmured against her lips, Grace’s hand tightening around the metal that’s caught between them. Dani opens her mouth to protest but Grace kisses her again, arching further into her embrace, veins popping in her neck at the exertion. “Dani, do it. For me.”

“I love you.”

The words finally come, as the makeshift blade slides into Grace’s stomach.

She doesn’t cry out, merely gasps, lips still pressed furiously to Dani’, one final kiss of death. Then, she falls back to the ground, eyes open, life slowly flickering out.

Hands covered in Grace’s blood, her power core grasped between her fingers Dani can only watch as the woman she loves dies, as the last thing she had been holding onto slips away. Grace is smiling, the lines between her eyes finally smoothed away as she takes her last breath, eyes never leaving Dani’s face.

There’s no time to grieve. There never is.

Now, she finishes this.

* * *

She’s easy to pick out, even at this age, her eyes hold the stubbornness and determination that would come to dog Dani’s every step. Her movements are more gangly, walls tumbling and long limbs but she can see the beginnings of the elegance and strength that Grace will soon come to possess.

She looks happy, content.

Oh, how Dani wishes she could keep her that way. She would trade all her love for Grace in a second if it meant keeping her out of harms way.

But the world doesn’t work like that, _fate_ doesn’t work like that.

She may not be able to stop the future, but she can damn sure change it.

Sarah doesn’t say anything when Dani comes back to the jeep Her eyes are hidden behind her trademark sunglasses, but Dani knows she’s watching intently starts the engine.

“I won’t let her die for me again.”

“Then you’d better be ready.”

Dani fully intends to.

* * *

Grace’s eyes are confused as her hands probe her stomach experimentally, pulling up her t-shirt to reveal two incisions on her lower stomach. Just two of the many that have facilitated her augmentation.

“Two power cores?”

Dani nods, trying to keep her expression neutral. The time hasn’t come yet, she can’t tell Grace why she insisted on the double cores. How she’s spent the last few years figuring out exactly how to make this happen.

The life of one woman is worth more than anyone will ever know.

Instead to takes a good hard look at the woman in front of her, who looks more like the soldier who had crashed into her life at the factory those years ago than she has before. Blonde shaggy hair, in desperate need of a cut, harsh lines on her body that she knows will fade to white scars. A hard determined expression even though she must be in a huge amount of pain. 

This is _her_ Grace.

The woman she loves. Who saved her before she ever knew she needed it. Who looks at her like she’s the only thing in the world that matters, like she is right now.

No words can adequately display the depth of her emotion, so she settles for a kiss, ignoring Grace’s hushed protest that someone might come in, might see them.

The time is fast approaching where she will have to make the hardest choice of her life, and she knows it won’t be any easier second time round. But what she does know is this time she will be coming back.

She may have failed before.

But she won’t again.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoyed that, please feel free to come and shout at me on Tumblr about this movie because it really was amazing. You can find me at Rehizle28.  
> Let me know what you thought in the comments, I do have a sort of companion piece/follow on from Grace's perspective that I'd like to write if there was interest.


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